How to return an array from a function in c – Returning Array from a Function in C Programming

How to return an array from a function ?
How to return an array from a function in c: We can return a pointer to the base address(address of first element of array) of array from a function like any basic data type. However, C programming language does not allow to return whole array from a function.

We should not return base pointer of a local array declared inside a function because as soon as control returns from a function all local variables gets destroyed. If we want to return a local array then we should declare it as a static variable so that it retains it’s value after function call.

Declaration of a Function Returning Integer Array
int* getScoreList();

Returning an array from a function c++: Above function returns the base address of an integer array.

C Program to Return an Array from a Function

#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h>
 
/* This function returns an array of N even numbers */
int* getEvenNumbers(int N){
    /* Declaration of a static local integer array */
    static int evenNumberArray[100];
    int i, even = 2;
     
    for(i=0; i<N; i++){
        evenNumberArray[i] = even;
        even += 2;
    }
    /* Returning base address of evenNumberArray array*/
    return evenNumberArray;
}
 
int main(){
   int *array, counter;
   array = getEvenNumbers(10);
   printf("Even Numbers\n");
   for(counter=0; counter<10; counter++){
       printf("%d\n", array[counter]);
   }
    
   getch();
   return 0;
}

Program Output

Even Numbers
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20